Elected Officials

CHAPARRAL COMMUNITY CENTER OPENS FOR NOON MEALS, DAYTIME PROGRAMS

CHAPARRAL COMMUNITY CENTER OPENS FOR NOON MEALS, DAYTIME PROGRAMS

1998-10-30 00:00

CHAPARRAL – About 35 residents gathered into the recently completed community center here Thursday to hear the official word that noon meals and daytime recreation and health programs will soon get underway.County Commissioner Dora Harp presided over the meeting and announced that, beginning Nov. 16, Quality Senior Services, Inc. will begin serving noon meals twice a week at the center. Residents over 60 will be able to eat free at the center; others will pay $4.25 per meal. In addition, Harp said, the center will offer a range of programs and services for the community.Steve Duran, director of Quality Senior Services, Inc., said the money to begin meal and program services in Chaparral comes from a $25,000 grant from Doña Ana County. He said that grant will provide a starting place from which services can be launched and eventually expanded with funding from other sources.Duran said the center will initially be open Mondays and Thursdays through Jan. 1, 1999, then will open for three days a week, with the additional day to be determined by the participants in the program. By July of 1999, he said, the center aims to be open Monday through Friday, offering nutritious meals, recreational and fitness programs, and other services including health screening clinics, out-of-town trips to Ruidoso and El Paso, and regular bingo games.Harp said credit for the center’s ability to begin offering programs goes to the Board of County Commissioners, State Rep. Dolores Wright, State Sen. Cynthia Nava, County Manager Fernando Macias, and a host of Chaparral residents – notably volunteers Rosemarie Beach, Joe and Matilde Stires, and John B. Colquitt, who donated the six acres off County Line Road upon which the facility is located.Harp said that although there had been “bumps along the way” in securing funding for both the facility and its programs, everyone involved worked as a team to insure that the community center would become a focal point of social activity for all residents of Chaparral.